The FBI's Secret Scrutiny (creepy article)

[MADem]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/05/AR2005110501366_pf.html

The FBI came calling in Windsor, Conn., this summer with a document marked for delivery by hand. On Matianuk Avenue, across from the tennis courts, two special agents found their man. They gave George Christian the letter, which warned him to tell no one, ever, what it said.

Under the shield and stars of the FBI crest, the letter directed Christian to surrender "all subscriber information, billing information and access logs of any person" who used a specific computer at a library branch some distance away. Christian, who manages digital records for three dozen Connecticut libraries, said in an affidavit that he configures his system for privacy. But the vendors of the software he operates said their databases can reveal the Web sites that visitors browse, the e-mail accounts they open and the books they borrow.

Christian refused to hand over those records, and his employer, Library Connection Inc., filed suit for the right to protest the FBI demand in public. The Washington Post established their identities -- still under seal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit -- by comparing unsealed portions of the file with public records and information gleaned from people who had no knowledge of the FBI demand.

The Connecticut case affords a rare glimpse of an exponentially growing practice of domestic surveillance under the USA Patriot Act, which marked its fourth anniversary on Oct. 26. "National security letters," created in the 1970s for espionage and terrorism investigations, originated as narrow exceptions in consumer privacy law, enabling the FBI to review in secret the customer records of suspected foreign agents. The Patriot Act, and Bush administration guidelines for its use, transformed those letters by permitting clandestine scrutiny of U.S. residents and visitors who are not alleged to be terrorists or spies.

The FBI now issues more than 30,000 national security letters a year, according to government sources, a hundredfold increase over historic norms.....

MORE AT LINK. Very troubling, this.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

1. The Patriot Act

is a bad, bad law. Every time I communicate with my federally elected officials I point that out. Each time I ask them to work on repealing it. We all need to do this or it won't get changed. It can eventually lead to shutting down things like DU...........
edited for my poor spelling at 6:00am!

[firefox]

2. It is worse than that. Read this.

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=23494&mode=nested&order=0

[Rich Hunt]

3. what were the consequences for this fellow?

I'm not getting enough information on this. First we were told it was a Connecticut library, now we're told that it's a company that was asked to hand over information on a certain library.

Does this mean that American Brahmins have abandoned their support for personal liberty and the rights of man?

When did they ever?

[MADem]

6. Well, it is in the courts now, so who knows?

Obviously, the stuff he was supposed to keep double-super secret is now out...and this ain't Scooter-type secrets, this is secrets about what our gubmint is doing to US!!

It is a big case, and could get some attention....eventually.

It's another BushCo bullying exercise...let us hope it ends in failure.

[1monster]

4. Shades of the "lettres de chachet" of the pre-French Revolution?

How soon before these "National Security Letters" are used to secretly arrest citizens without charges, without notification of anyone, without legal representation, and with no clue of when, if ever, the incarceration will end?

Oh. I forgot. They have already done that...

[Wilms]

5. kick n/t

[firefox]

7. kick for the evening crowd nt